


Ten Targets

by Sirca



Series: In Parts of Ten [1]
Category: Borderlands
Genre: Agender Character, Backstory, Character Study, Gen, Platonic Female/Male Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-06
Updated: 2013-02-06
Packaged: 2017-11-28 09:59:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sirca/pseuds/Sirca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zer0’s path never fails to keep them on their toes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Targets

**Author's Note:**

> I've made edits to reflect the information that has come out about Zer0 being agender and using they/them pronouns.

**10.** Their target jumps, choosing to do so than face his end honorably.

At least it would keep suspicion away from foul-play. They’d enjoy the freedom of leaving the planet without stowing away in a cargo hold.

 **9.** Their marks often beg. Some offer money, some offer power, some offer whatever springs to mind. The fear of death can drive a man to do anything, they finds. It’s when one gets off his knees and fights back that Zer0 is truly impressed.

Well, only for a moment. He goes down with a stroke of their blade.

 **8.** They were warned of their coming, and they didn’t mind. Eluding the guards, fighting them when they couldn’t go around, and creating chaos amongst their ranks was more fulfilling than sneaking into their target’s penthouse. Watching yet another wealthy man beg for mercy had lost its charm long ago.

They think themselves the predators, using their superior numbers to back him into a corner. Little do they know they've slipped by, and what is chased is nothing more than a clever trick.

 **7.** They are surprised when the man they're hunting offers them tea. Zer0’s response is silence. They're there in the name of vengeance, hired by a victim’s family. The target lunges, a knife in hand; Zer0 deflects it with their forearm.

Their target lunges, and Zer0 blocks, once, twice, a third time before seeing an opening. They grabs his arm, and the man whimpers after catching sight of Zer0’s inhuman hands. They bend the arm back until the knife pricks soft flesh, eventually sinking in to the hilt.

 **6.** One of their jobs went south. The target was dead but they'd alerted their presence to the local police force. They’re not like most, and the ability to track them is uncanny. They think that this is it. The challenge they've been waiting for.

They eventually find them in the industrial district. They dart through openings, doing their best to avoid gunfire. A bullet catches them in the shoulder, but they don't stop. A few of their men get crushed by machinery in the pursuit, another electrocuted.

They lose them.

 **5.** They've never visited the borderworlds before Pandora. The people are as rough as the planet itself, willing to do anything to protect what’s theirs. The warlords do not beg, they do not offer money. They do not offer power. They only offer their bullets, their clubs, whatever they could grab.

They like their will to survive, respects it even. It made them more of a challenge than anything they've faced before.

 **4.** They've always worked alone. But a similar thread of revenge ties them to the rest of the Vault Hunters. They take down targets together, each more difficult than the last. They find that they doesn’t mind the assistance. Or the company.

 **3.** A psycho catches them, dragging them to the ground. They take a savage elbow to their jaw, knocking their head back and causing them to see stars. The next blow they anticipate and catches with their arm, retaliating with a vicious punch. They scramble away, back to their feet in time for the pyshco to raise his weapon and come at them again.

Before they can react, he’s airborne, held there by Maya’s phaselock. Thy look to her quickly. The projection on their visor is simple: :).

 **2.** They wipe gore from the front of their helmet. Never before had they factored fauna into being part of their challenge. Partly from the lull the innerworlds offered. Another part was their brutishness and lack of sophisticated fighting. Salvador’s laugh of satisfaction as he pumps a dead thresher full of ammo is enough to make them rethink their stance.

 **1.** Hyperion personnel and their machines surround them at all sides. Zer0 knows they’ll cut through them, knows that they’ll find Jack and the Warrior waiting for them at the end of the line. Their fingers itch in anticipation, closing around the hilt of their blade. This one last target—after searching so long.

They’d finally get what they wanted.


End file.
